Chapter 36

Buck and Ardala materialized mere inches away from the outer wall of the pyramid. Buck reached behind his head and realized Theo hadn't made the trip with them. He swore silently to himself. "I hope we don't need to translate anything!"

He checked his hip and breathed a small sigh of relief. "At least I still have my gun."

Ardala checked her hip too. "Me too. Just hope we don't need them," she said.

Buck merely nodded. He turned around to see the glowing glyphs on the wall. "Well here's how we get out when we need to."

"I just hope they stay there until we need them."

Buck turned to glance at the princess. "You're just oozing with confidence, aren't you?"

"Sorry."

He waved his head toward the corridor leading away from the glyphs. He took her hand and squeezed. "Shall we?"

They walked down the gently sloping corridor for about a hundred yards before it opened into a large chamber. In the center of the room stood an altar which was surrounded by a water filled moat. They followed the spiral path around the room to the short bridge across the moat. Cautiously they stepped up onto the platform holding the altar. Two glowing, green glyphs appeared on the altar. They exchanged unsure glances before finally touching the two glyphs on the altar.

Right in front of them on the other side of the altar appeared a hologram of an old man dressed in royal clothing. "Welcome daughter of Knilong, son of Gahan."

Buck and Ardala exchanged looks again. "Huh?"

"You have done well to get to this temple," the hologram continued. "I'm sure you have many questions, but please allow me to tell you a story first. A long time ago there lived a maiden who was the most beautiful woman in the galaxy, possibly the universe. Her name was Knilong. I'm sure you think you know the story, but it's probably slightly different from the one you know. She lived on a beautiful planet, which you are already familiar with. I don't know what the name of the planet is now, but I'm sure you're familiar with it. It's where you found the first medallion. Anyway, back to Knilong. She had many suitors among all the planets of the known galaxy, but she only had eyes for one, a young peasant boy from a neighboring but enemy planet. They met by accident, but they quickly fell in love. When her father found out he took the princess and locked her away in an impenetrable mountain palace and sentenced her to seven years exile. She was alone in the palace except for many dwarves who served as her captors and guards. When Gahan realized what had happened, he spent a couple years just trying to find out enough information on where the princess had been taken.

"The palace was impossible to reach except by airship. And the only person with the access code to the force shield surrounding the palace was the king himself. Gahan's only recourse was to try to climb the impossible mountain to rescue the princess. After many trials, he was finally able to reach the peak. He snuck into the palace to rescue the princess. But one of the dwarves found out and got word to the king who came in his airship to confront him. He caught them attempting to escape and threatened to kill Gahan. Knilong rushed up to the king to plead for Gahan's life, but she bumped into the king and knocked him off balance. The king fell off the balcony and plummeted to his death on the rocks three miles below the palace. Knilong and Gahan then took the king's ship back to the main palace where they married. The marriage ended the feud between their two planets and they lived in peace for many years.

"Knilong was a very merciful and loving queen. But in a moment of weakness and rage, she never got over the fact the dwarves held her for so long in captivity. Therefore she had every single dwarf hunted down and removed them from her realm by banishing them to a planet of ice and snow, the planet on which you now stand. She then had this pyramid constructed to house a record of her deeds and accomplishments and the knowledge of which you now seek. To protect this temple from falling into the wrong hands, it was constructed on an island which was then purposefully sunk once the temple was complete. She chose this site because the lake would help protect the temple, since it is completely frozen over sixteen months out of the year.

"I know that this is probably a little different from the story you know, but I can promise you that this is the true story. I know because… I am Gahan. The fact that you are here looking for this 'ultimate weapon' tells me that the galaxy has once again fallen into chaos. My only hope is that you use the knowledge gained here to restore peace once more to the galaxy. I have the utmost faith in you. Use the power here wisely and rule with mercy and grace, as Knilong did thousands of years ago. Farewell, my children. And may you rule in peace as your ancestors of long ago."

The hologram faded into nothing. Buck started to say something, when another hologram began to appear. This time it was a younger looking man.

"Is this thing recording? It is? Okay. Oh, sorry. My name is Nigellian. I felt like I had to update you on some things that have happened from the time Gahan left his message. Three thousand years have passed from the time of Gahan and his queen Knilong. Their legacy has been a long one, but things have begun to break down. Shortly after Gahan's death, Knilong moved to center of power from the planet of her birth to this planet. I don't know what name it has now, so I'll use this star chart."

He raised up a map and pointed to a particular star system. Ardala's eyes widened. "That's Draconia!" she exclaimed.

"This planet is where her descendents ruled from for the thousands of years after his death. For most of this time there was peace and prosperity throughout the galaxy. However, I suppose nothing ever lasts.

"About five hundred years ago things began to fall apart. The royal houses of nobles began to abuse the outer colonies. The royal houses competed with each other in many things, including possessions and of all things, slaves. An underground movement began to undermine the noble houses. It began slowly, but eventually became a large movement that the nobles could no longer ignore. It took about five hundred years to become strong enough to openly fight back against the nobles. The movement was led by an ex noble named Adomalovus. Under his leadership, many of the nobles fell from power and several even lost their lives. The realm fell into a civil war where there were many atrocities on both sides. Finally the king and queen's guard managed to capture Adomalovus and his followers and they banished them to a faraway planet on the edge of the galaxy. Before the king's guard left, however, the rebels underwent a process known as 'purging'. That's when their memories were erased. They were dumped off on this planet unceremoniously. To ensure that they couldn't rejoin the realm any time soon and to ensure that no one could find them, the stargate to this star system was disabled. The idea was that it would take them many centuries before they could progress to space travel and rejoin the galactic races. There was also a theory that these people contained a gene for rebellion and violence and that they may simply destroy themselves before they could become space faring again. That way the king and queen could look merciful by not committing mass genocide. They then regained their power and everything pretty much returned to the status quo. I came here to gain the power and the knowledge of the ancients and to fight for my people, but unfortunately I became stranded here. I can only imagine the fate of the galaxy now.

"I copy Gahan's sentiment. I hope you are more successful than I was in gaining this power to make a better galaxy. If you do, I hope you rule with knowledge and wisdom, not just power and greed. Power and greed is what brought this galaxy to its knees. Only wisdom and knowledge can restore it. I wish you luck."

The hologram faded into nothingness. Behind it a door slowly slid open to reveal another passage way. Buck took a deep breath, turned to face the princess. "This must be it! Are you ready?"

She nodded once. "Let's go."

Wilma turned around and cocked her head to one side. "Twiki, do you hear something?"
Just then a squadron of heavily armed Draconian soldiers poured into the small room. A man from the back of the squadron stepped through the crowd, followed by a much younger woman. The old man looked around the room.

"Where's Rogers and my daughter?"

Buffin instantly kneeled to the floor. "Emperor Draco!"

Biron stared at the younger woman. "You killed my sister!" he hissed.

Rapel smiled at him and raised her gun to his chin. "Today's your lucky day! The emperor doesn't need you dead anymore!'

Draco turned to Wilma. "You, Earthling! Where is Captain Rogers?"

Her eyes averted toward the pyramid in the water. He followed her gaze through the window. He stepped up to the window to stare incredulously at the underwater temple. He turned back around. "How did he get across?"

Rapel stepped up to inspect the inscription on the wall. She turned to Biron. "What does this say?"

No one said a word. She sighed and then shot Biron in the chest. "I guess it wasn't your lucky day."

She turned to Buffin. "What does it say? And I won't repeat myself again."

"The inscription says, 'Only the lovers may pass,'" Theo said.

Rapel and Draco looked at each other and smiled. "Is that so?"

"Wait a minute," Wilma said. "How'd you find us?"

Rapel smiled. "I put a homing tracer inside your little droid."

""Beep-be-de-de-beep: I've been violated!"

Rapel simply laughed as she stepped up to one of the glyphs on the wall. Draco stepped up to the other one. Each one touched a glyph and then disappeared from the room.

"Beep-be-de-de-beep: look out, Buck!"